There are two areas to think about here, practical and technical. The practical issues are how it looks, (colour, style, finish/shine, side windows and internal lighting) and whether it will fit under your desk. Technical issues include the size, heat and power issues. Economy cases disperse heat through the PSU which can get noisy, better cases have more but quieter fans, more internal space for better air flow and more room for future upgrades.

Processor or CPU manufacturers are constantly trying to beat each others products so new faster products are being announced all the time. You need to consider what you want to use the computer for and how long you want to keep it. If you want high performance for gaming and video editing go for the top of the range. For home and office use, choose a mid-range processor type and don't go for the slowest edition.

The heatsink is the cooler which sits on the top of your CPU and keeps it cool. The default cooler is good enough for all systems but if you want near silent noise but with faster fan spinning & better looking hardware then upgrade to one of the thermaltake orbs!

Shortage of memory is the most common reason for a system slowing down. With Windows 7 your system will barely stagger along with 1 GB. It will work steadily with 2GB but ideally you should go for 4GB for long life. 6 to 8 GB for video editing, heavy gaming and 12 or 24 GB for ultimate performance.

If your looking to play games you should buy the best card you can on your budget. If it's for general usage a basic card will be fine. For help choosing call us on 0161 660 9150 or email us.

Choosing a good motherboard is important as the motherboard links all your other components together.

You can click the information icon at the end of the motherboard models to view all the details of the motherboard.

You can get amazing quality of sound from your PC but once you go beyond simple left and right channels you need to incorporate a sound card. In specifying your speaker and sound card combination you need to make sure that you have matching specifications. 5:1 and 7:1 home cinema type speakers need 5:1 or 7:1 support and connectors.

You can choose here what type of network connector you need for your PC to access the internet and network. The standard ethernet lan port is built into the motherboard and included on all systems. If you need wireless you can choose from the other 3 options which will be an addition to the onboard ethernet lan port.

To use you PC as a digital TV tuner you need one of these. Software that comes with some of the cards allows you to have full PVR function through the PC, but make sure that you have enough Hard Drive capacity to store all your favourite TV programmes.. Also make sure you have enough of the right type of MB slots to fit in the full combination of cards that you choose.

A USB card allows you to attach even more USB devices than is offered by your motherboard and case combination, but watch out, you can end up with more USB ports than Windows can or will support. Make sure you have enough spare PCI slots for this card to fit.

The Power Supply Unit (PSU) feeds power to all the components in your system. It also helps to suck air through the case. The power output needs to be enough to drive all the components that you have chosen. 350W may be enough for a basic system, but add a big CPU and graphics card, more drives, etc. and you need a lot more power. Invest in a better PSU for smoother power output, quieter operation and a more reliable system.

For the latest graphics cards the minimum requirements are as follows:

ATI 4850/4870 - OCZ 500W
ATI 4890/5850/5870 - OCZ 600W
ATI 5890 - OCZ 700W
NVIDIA GTS 250 - OCZ 500W
NVIDIA GTX 260 - OCZ 600W
NVIDIA GTX 275 - OCZ 600W
NVIDIA GTX 280/285 - OCZ 700W
NVIDIA GTX 295 - OCZ 700W

CrossFire
2 x ATI 4850/4870/4890/5850- 850W
2 x ATI 5870/5970 - 1000W

SLI
2 x NVIDIA GTX 260 - 850W
3 x NVIDIA GTX 260/280 - 1250W
2 x NVIDIA GTX 280 - 1000W
2 x NVIDIA GTX 295 - 1000W